The origin of the Japanese school bell melody

If you have watched Japanese anime or school dramas then you probably have heard the famous bell melody played in schools to signal the end and beginning of periods. Have you ever wondered what it is that makes the bell sounds and where the melody originates from? Probably not, but I’ll tell you anyway!

In the video you can see the instrument that plays the melody. It’s called a chime.

The melody is called Westminster Quarters. It was written in 1793 for a new clock in St Mary the Great, the University Church in Cambridge, England. The same melody can be heard from the clock tower where Big Ben hangs.

Now, you may wonder how did an old British church clock melody find its way into the Japanese school system. So did I, so I did some research and found out that it was adopted sometime after the end of World War II. Until that time, most schools in Japan used a very loud bell that was apparently as abrasive as a loud alarm clock at 6am. There was a teacher at a junior high school in Tokyo who got sick of the annoying bells, and went looking for something more pleasant. A friend suggested the Westminster Quarters, which had been used on the radio during the war at the start of important news bulletins and the school adopted it. It gradually spread across the country, and is now used at almost all schools in Japan.